Fredauon Fun Facts

[Arayaz]

Fredauon Fun Fact #12:
In Fredauon chemistry, atoms are really indivisible components of matter only differing in color and shape between different elements, which include water, air, panacea, miasma, and vis vitalis, among others.

Huh, interesting... what happens if you do divide them?

[Creyeditor]

You simply can't. But you can transmutate one element into another by 'forging' its shape. This, however, is very energy-intensive and only produces very small amounts of the desired product. So transmutation is not really feasible as a means of producing any matter.

[Creyeditor]

Fredauon Fun Fact #13:
Evolution on Fredauon is Lamarckian in the following restricted sense: characteristics gradually acquired by use or disuse of certain body parts are inheritable. This is because cells inside organs that are used more frequently or less frequently change their internal building plan (the homunculus) to accomodate the changes in body shape and then shed gemmules that carry this information to other cells in the body, including the gonads. Abrupt changes like chopping of tails will not cause shedding of gemmules because this often just means that the organ in question cannot shed gemmules anymore for one reason or the other and so no information can be carried to other cells.

[VaptuantaDoi]

Fredauon Fun Fact #13:
Evolution on Fredauon is Lamarckian in the following restricted sense: characteristics gradually acquired by use or disuse of certain body parts are inheritable. This is because cells inside organs that are used more frequently or less frequently change their internal building plan (the homunculus) to accomodate the changes in body shape and then shed gemmules that carry this information to other cells in the body, including the gonads. Abrupt changes like chopping of tails will not cause shedding of gemmules because this often just means that the organ in question cannot shed gemmules anymore for one reason or the other and so no information can be carried to other cells.

I like this. What kind of effects does it have on evolution – is it discernably different from Earth's style of evolution? If I was a Fredauon, and I just tried really hard to fly all my life, and taught my descendants to do the same, would I eventually produce flying people through sheer force of will?

[Creyeditor]

Well, flying wouldn't work that way. Three problems

• You would need to know what to change in order to make a flying human.
• You would want to use your legs and arms less to get lighter bones but more in order to get more muscles.
• Provided you find a solution, you would still need to rely on random mutations in order to get some kind of bat-like wings.

You could have people that are really good at some professions or sports. But that would probably take several generations before there is a noticeable effect.

I think adaptions to new environments are slightly faster on Fredauon. There are lots of aquatic birds and aquatic mammals on the planet.

[Creyeditor]

Fredauon Fun Fact #14:
Ginkgo are one of the most common and most diverses clades of (wild or cultivated) trees on Fredauon.

[Creyeditor]

Fredauon Fun Fact #15:
The main religion of the Wizard Republic is similar to Gnosticism *here on Earth* in that humans possess a divine 'spark' of knowledge that was seperated from the highest deity by mistake. It is different, however, that there is no secret knowledge; instead knowledge is actively accumulated and publicly shared in order to 'ignite' as many people as possible.

[Visions1]

Would you say they are misotheistic?

[Creyeditor]

Not at all. All people have 'the spark' but the spark can only rise back through the heavenly spheres back to the main deity at the time of death if the person has accumulated enough knowledge in their lifetime. Folk religion assumes that each sphere has a specific deity that quizzes you on your knowledge and if you do not pass, you get to spend another lifetime in the realm of the matching deity. Prayers to ancestors often involve submitting knowledge in the hope that this will help them pass the quizzes. Sometimes people also pray to the lower deities to have mercy with their ancestors and not to pose to much of a challenge in the quizzes.
The main deity wants the sparks to reunite. The idea is that the main deity misses some of its parts. They can only reunite if the accumulate knowledge on earth. I guess this could be some kind of end time phropecy. If all knowledge is collected and all sparks are reunited, no humans will remain on Fredauon and the main deity will be happy after all.

[Creyeditor]

Fredauon Fun Fact #16:
Music-wise, there is a gradient continuum on The Continent from the 3/4 time signature, downbeat music, with 12 notes to a octave, and prominent Shengs in the area north of the Great Mountains to the pentatonic, polyrhythmic, drum and string-heavy music in the southern parts. In between is the area around Bólks, where octaves have 7 to 9 tones and rhythm varies between even and odd time signatures, depending on the musical piece.

[Creyeditor]

Fredauon Fun Fact #17:
In the very southern part of The Continent, a breed of wooly penguins (from neotenic King Penguins or Emperor Penguins) is kept and herded as cattle. It is slaughtered for its fatty tissue but also produces crop milk that is consumed by humans and its skin and feathers are used for blankets.

Edit: Oh, and of course eggs!

[Creyeditor]

Fredauon Fun Fact #18:
A common and famous dish among the elves consists of a variety of vegetable-filled fried dumplings with a selection of sauces. The dish is arranged on a special plate with the dumplings in the middle and the sauces on special basins (?) on the rim of the plate.

[Creyeditor]

Fredauon Fun Fact #19:
There are no fruits, as we know them, on Fredauon. Instead, various kinds of edible pseudo-fruits developed from different kinds of fleshy seed coats, i.e.

• arils in e.g. yews (Taxus), yellowwoods (Afrocarpus), joint-firs (Ephedra), plum pines (Podocarpus), plum yews (Cephalotaxus), celery pines (Phyllocladus), cherry yews (Prumnopitys), white pines (Dacrycarpus).
• sarcotesta in e.g. ginkgo and cycads
• galbulus in e.g. junipers and cypresses.

[VaptuantaDoi]

Are they similar to Earth fruits in size and taste? Or are they restricted to weird little berries?

[Creyeditor]

Yes, I would say so. There are maybe some be yew-apples and ginkgo-pears and almost definitely cycad-pineapples. I should really do an AI generated picture of woolly penguin herders eating yew apples.

[Creyeditor]

Fredauon Fun Fact #20:
The Other Continent (known locally as Moab or Woab) is famous on Fredauon for volcanos, fjords, thunderstorms, and the preponderance of sign languages.

[Creyeditor]

Special 20th FFF celebration:
Here are some potential pictures that I did with Bing Image Creator

Two pictures of wooly penguin shepherds

Spoiler:

A picture of a cycad passion fruit

Spoiler:

The Other Continent

Spoiler:

[VaptuantaDoi]

Fredauon Fun Fact #20:
The Other Continent (known locally as Moab or Woab) is famous on Fredauon for [...] the preponderance of sign languages.

Are there a lot of deaf people, or is it just very noisy with all the volcanoes and storms?

[Creyeditor]

Both, I would say.

[Creyeditor]

Fredauon Fun Fact #21:
A curious part of Fredauon fauna are the so-called land sponges, a species of sponge that resembles certain fungi in their outer appearance. They occur in areas that have both high humidity as well as lots of wind. They consist of several sticky interconnected tube-like structures that are positioned such that wind blows through them and the land sponge can feed on aeroplancton (e.g. flying spiders or spores) that is trapped in the sticky tubes and slowly digested by acidic fluids generated in the tubes. Some land sponges live in a symbiotic relationship with other small life forms.